Almigo brews a beer part 2 - Hilarious lessons in what not to do

So I'm still a whiles away from boiling, pitching, waiting, bottling, drinking and possibly bragging. However in between pay days and drooling over which bit of kit I'm going to purchase next, I've been keeping myself busy with a bit of learning but more importantly, a bit of laughing...

Firstly, the learning bit.

Given that I'm keen on a small batch kit to start (on account of starting off small and seeing what sticks) - a lot of the recipes I've been interested in aren't a good fit for the dimensions of my brewing. (Yes I'm getting a little ahead of myself in the fact that I haven't even brewed a single kit brew yet and already I'm looking at potential recipes to try out but I'm very excitable you see?)
The solution? Some handy maths I found courtesy of Byo.com:

Most homebrew recipes are formulated for 5 gallons (19 L) of beer. To scale a recipe down linearly, just multiply the amount of each ingredient by your batch size, then divide by the batch size specified in the original recipe. For example, if a 5-gallon (19-L) recipe called for 9.0 oz. (0.26 g) of crystal malt. A 3-gallon (11-L) recipe for the same beer would require [9 x 3 / 5 =] 5.4 oz. (0.15 kg) of crystal malt.  Of course, at a smaller scale, you may be boiling more vigorously, boiling your full wort, cooling quicker and doing other things that will affect how the recipe turns out. Take good notes and use these as a guide to making recipe adjustments.

So I now have a post it note on my desk that reads:

Original ingredient size x small batch setup capacity / original batch capacity

When I finally get to the point where I'm brewing with my small batch from scratch I'm just going to type out the recipe with the new measurements rather than convert them on the go. Otherwise you just know I'm going to stuff things up completely in amazing fashion...

All this for one Pale Ale..

Secondly, the laughing part

I have a decent commute to work so there's plenty of time along the journey for a podcast or two. This week I've shined the spotlight on some home brewing podcasts and boy have I struck beer like gold with The Basic Brewing Podcast, especially the 2017 Brewing Disasters episode. 

Getting shot in the face with beet cider, jamming up the disposal with wet grain, destroying sentimental furniture, exploding carboys - I've barely scratched the surface here of some of the most hilarious painful adventures in home brewing here, there are plenty of laugh out loud in the car ride moments. For me it's both educational (try not to make the same mistakes starting out) and very entertaining (the poor buggers than drank some Star San by accident, wow...) 

Looking to learn or looking to laugh? Grab a couple of episodes today!

Missed any parts of Almigo brews a beer? Find the rest here:

1. One man, half a plan.

2. Hilarious lessons in what not to do. (You are here)
3. Introducing Cappadonna